the village in which he lives. The raising of olives, grapes, and many other fruits is the leading occupation, but almost every farmer grows some grain.

Down on the plains larger fields exist and cereals are largely planted. The land of a given village is frequently owned in common by the villagers, and a division of it takes place every year or every alternate year, and is so arranged that each man gets portions of the good as well as of the less desirable land.

Fences, in the western sense of the word, are unknown. In the mountainous country lands are inclosed by loose stone walls, still called by the ancient Hebrew name jedar, and on the plains by thorn hedges. When the open fields are owned individually, the boundary lines are indicated by deep furrows, in which at intervals stones are laid as "landmarks." It is therefore readily seen how easily these boundaries could be changed by an avaricious neighbor, undeterred by the Mosaic warning, "Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's landmark." *

LAND STILL SOLD BY THE "YOKE" AND "REED"

Until a comparatively short time ago real estate was bought and sold by the use of a contract, which the chief men of the place witnessed and sealed; nor has this custom become entirely obsolete. Farming land is estimated by the faddan, which, being literally translated, is "yoke," but implies a piece of land "that a yoke of oxen might plow" in a day. (Compare I Samuel 14: 14.) City property, on the other hand, is measured by a standard known as a "reed." We can trace its use far back into ancient times in the writings of Ezekiel and St. John.†

PLOWING AND PLANTING

Raint begins to fall about November, after a rainless summer, and as soon as the ground is well moistened the fellah starts planting the winter cereals-wheat, barley, lentils, beans, etc. The plow is a crude affair, made of oak, the bent parts being natural curves held together with iron bands; these bands and a small plow

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share, which only scratches the ground a few inches deep, are the only metal parts.

Oxen are the favorite animals for yoking to a plow. Cows and donkeys are employed by the poorer people. Horses, mules, and camels (the latter only along the Mediterranean coast) are harnessed singly to plows, while sometimes one sees an ox and camel yoked together. In the Bible the command was “Thou shalt not plow with an ox and ass together." S

The fellah sows the grain on the bare ground and then plows it in. In rocky ground a man or woman follows with a pick to loosen the earth in the spots that may have been skipped by the plow. The soil is not fertilized. The disintegration of the underlying limestone feeds the soil, so that for thousands of years it has continued yielding crops.

The manure and rubbish, instead of being utilized, are allowed to accumulate in heaps outside the villages until they surround it like small mountains. Immediately a house is deserted and the roof falls in the women find it more convenient to dump their rubbish there than to go farther, and in a short time the ruined house becomes a dunghill.¶

After the winter crops have all been planted the vineyards and olive groves are plowed a couple of times and also the fields reserved for the summer planting. These latter crops are not put into the ground until the rains have entirely

ceased.

Watermelons and muskmelons, tomatoes, a species of cucumber, vegetable marrow, are all raised without a drop of rain or of water by irrigation, but are sustained by the moisture stored in the ground from the winter rains, aided by the copious summer dews. The natives consider that rain falling after the summer crops have been planted is extremely detrimental to them.

During harvest time the fields are lively and picturesque; the entire family has a part in the work, the small children playing about among the sheaves, and even the babies are brought to the fields.

A large toothed sickle is employed by the reapers when the grain is long, but § Deut. 22: 10.

Ezra 6:11; Daniel 3:29.

if short a smaller one is used, the edge being quite dull; so that it does not cut, but simply uproots the grain. Sheepskin aprons and a large glove are often worn by the men harvesters; but the women, who are doing the very same work as the men, are provided with neither.

Destitute women and girls are allowed to follow the reapers and glean the fallen ears, which they tie into neat little bundles, dropping them on the ground as they go along, and these they gather up every evening and beat out the grain with a stick, just as Ruth did of old in the fields of Bethlehem.*

During the reaping period what the Bible calls "parched corn" is made in almost every field. Some wheat not fully ripe is cut down and set on fire, the straw only being consumed. The roasted heads are rubbed between the hands and the chaff winnowed out in the wind. With out further preparation, this roasted wheat forms one of the common articles of diet of the reapers. Undoubtedly such was the "parched corn" which Boaz reached to Ruth.f

THE THRESHING-FLOOR

A large flat rock in the mountainous country or a hard piece of ground on the plains is selected for the threshing-floor, and this, up to the present time, bears the Biblical name joren. Here all the grain is gathered.

We read that Jacob, after his dream at Bethel, promised to God one-tenth of all he should receive.‡ Later, when this land was possessed by the Israelites, they were enjoined to give a tenth of their produce to the Levites. We also find Samuel telling Israel what they could expect if they were determined to have a king to reign over them, saying: "He [the king] will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards,

and

he will take the tenth of your sheep."

Nor does this custom ever seem to have ceased, for the tithe is still collected. There are numerous mosques, schools, and other religious institutions which receive it from specified properties on which

*Ruth 2: 17.

Ruth 2:14; 1 Sam. 17: 17 and 25: 18. Gen. 28: 22.

S Lev. 27: 30. 1 Sam. 8:15, 17.

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it is charged, and from all other tillable land it is collected by the government, the right of exacting these taxes from each village being farmed out to the highest bidder.

The sheaves are brought to the threshing floor on the backs of camels, mules, and donkeys, and in big bundles on the heads of the women, and are stacked up in the requisite number of piles. One of these is first chosen by the tax collector and has to be separately trodden out and the grain delivered to him before the rest of the work begins.

Threshing by the primitive methods. employed is the most tiresome task of all the fellah's round of toil. In many places it is done entirely by treading out beneath the feet of the animals, which are tied together abreast and driven round and round over the spread-out grain (see page 272).

The mules and horses are provided. with flat sheet-iron shoes for all kinds of work, and the cattle, just as the threshing season begins, are specially shod. On each half of the cloven hoof a small iron shoe is nailed, and this not only facilitates the work of separating the grain, but prevents the animal from becoming lame.

HOW THE GRAIN IS WINNOWED

In the simple treading-out process the animals are driven around slowly over the grain, while the men, with wooden forks, keep stirring it up. When thoroughly threshed, the straw has been chopped up into short bruised bits and all is then heaped up.

To separate the grain, "the fan,” which is a wooden fork, is used, the farmer waiting until the wind is blowing hard enough without being violent. Such conditions are best found in the evenings or during moonlight nights. The winnower tosses up the trampled grain into the air, and, being heavier than the straw, it falls into a heap by itself, while the fine straw separates into a neat pile a little distance away. The dust and very fine particles are completely blown away. This refuse is called ur by the Arabs, the original Hebrew name.

A sieve is now emploved, and through this the grain is passed to take out the